# This Year in Music



## Lady Grimdour (Dec 29, 2008)

So was 2008's music good or what?

To me, it was legendary. First was Metallica's release of Death Magnetic, returning to their thrash roots and Iced Earth welcoming Matt Barlow back with The Crucible of Man, and former vocalist Ripper Owens finds a new calling with Malmsteen, releasing Perpetual Flame which was quite epic. Lest we forget ACDC's Black Ice which is pretty damn good, showing that the Aussies still have a few stuff under their sleeves. Plus Chinese Democracy from Rose and his new bandmates delivers. A bit late, but it delivers.

So it was good.

Discuss.


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## Fireworks (Dec 29, 2008)

haven't heard much stuff from this year, besides like Watershed, Twilight Of The Thunder God, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, and lol Viva La Vida. so I don't know. though I might've forgotten some other stuff that I've listened to that were from this year. either way, last year was definitely so much better.


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## #1 bro (Dec 29, 2008)

Is Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust any good? I like Gobbledigook, and I'm considering buying the album.

(also I don't care what anyone says Viva La Vida kicks ass >(


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## Bombsii (Dec 29, 2008)

No. Nothing majorly significant to me. Black and Gold and a few other tracks were good as one-offs and Murray Gold's new Torchwood track was stunning, but generally quite bland.-Hey, its my opinion.


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## Tarvos (Dec 29, 2008)

Grimdour The Desecrater said:


> So was 2008's music good or what?
> 
> To me, it was legendary. First was Metallica's release of Death Magnetic, returning to their thrash roots and Iced Earth welcoming Matt Barlow back with The Crucible of Man, and former vocalist Ripper Owens finds a new calling with Malmsteen, releasing Perpetual Flame which was quite epic. Lest we forget ACDC's Black Ice which is pretty damn good, showing that the Aussies still have a few stuff under their sleeves. Plus Chinese Democracy from Rose and his new bandmates delivers. A bit late, but it delivers.
> 
> ...


Not a single one of those records is good, and a fair few of them are abominable (Guns, Malmsteen.)

The new Iced Earth was okay, but the songwriting is below par (Matt being back is good, don't get me wrong, but the songs still suck). Metallica went back in time a little bit, and its their best since the s/t, but it's still bland and overlong. AC/DC just released the same album they did last time, which is uninteresting.

There were a lot of good records, but they come from weird places. Alpha is completely forgetting the new Cynic, which is a masterpiece. Watershed is alright. Twilight rules. I don't like the new Coldplay as its all the same to me but I guess that is fairly decent.

The new Anathema, Meshuggah, Gojira, Steven Wilson, Protest the Hero, all good. 

I dont like the new Sigur Ros.

New God is an Astronaut is ok. Crystal Castles is ok. Portishead is decent. ASMZ's new one was decent. Draconian's new one was excellent.

This is all I can think off of the top of my head but there are more.


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## Fireworks (Dec 29, 2008)

Zeta Reticuli said:


> Is Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust any good? I like Gobbledigook, and I'm considering buying the album.


personally I found it kind of boring, there were only like 3 songs that caught my attention while listening, it was a disappointment after Takk..., but eh, then again I've yet to give it a more in-depth listen.

edit: oh yeah, forgot about Cynic - Traced In Air, and that reminds me that I've forgotten about Pain - Cynic Paradise as well. and just remembered that obZen and Fortress were released this year as well. and Steven Wilson's solo album is great.


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## Tarvos (Dec 29, 2008)

Cynic Paradise is ok, has some good tracks, but it's not as consistent as some of the other Pain records (mainly my favourite Dancing with the Dead). It feels rushed.


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## Retsu (Dec 29, 2008)

Awesome albums of 2008:
Amanda Palmer - _Who Killed Amanda Palmer?_
Angelspit - _Blood Death Ivory_
Ayria - _Hearts for Bullets_
Battlelore - _The Last Alliance_
Blackmore's Night - _Secret Voyage_
Britney Spears - _Circus_
Coldplay - not even going to say it
Flowing Tears - _Thy Kingdom Gone_
Forever Slave - _Tales for Bad Girls_
Haggard - _Tales of Ithiria
_Indica - _Valoissa
_Katy Perry - _One of the Boys_
L'Âme Immortelle - _Namenlos_
Midnattsol - _Nordlys_
Portishead - _Third_
Qntal - _Translucida_
Sound Horizon - _Moira_
Within Temptation - _Black Symphony_

Yeah, 2008's been a pretty good year for me.


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## Shiny Grimer (Dec 29, 2008)

Nothing for me. :P

I don't even like many modern artists, commercial or underground.


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## Storm Earth and Fire (Dec 29, 2008)

Only 2 artists I really listened to put out albums this year. Coldplay (everybody knows what it is), and Ali Project (Kinsho and Keikan Shijin). And unfortunately, I haven't been able to listen to Ali Project's new albums. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Buddies isn't bad, though.

Otherwise, some random anime singles from some other Japanese artists.


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## Tarvos (Dec 29, 2008)

Retsu's list needs more Draconian.


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## Fireworks (Dec 29, 2008)

oh yeah, 3 more albums I've forgotten about:

Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul, which is imo their worst album to date, The Shock Of The Lightning is the only somewhat decent song on it, and even that is pretty much just recycled material, a carbon copy of their previous stuff

Keane - Perfect Symmetry, which had quite a couple of very interesting songs

and Nickelback - Dark Horse, which I've yet to listen to (and before you Nickelback haters ask why would I bother, well imo All The Right Reasons was quite a good album, and I've just youtube'd up 3 songs from the new album and I thought those were decent as well)


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## Retsu (Dec 29, 2008)

Watershed said:


> Retsu's list needs more Draconian.


I only have _Arcane Rain Fell_ and _Where Lovers Mourn_ and I don't really have the patience to sit through either.


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## Tarvos (Dec 29, 2008)

turning season within beats both


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## #1 bro (Dec 30, 2008)

I think the only album I own released this year is Viva La Vida. Kind of pathetic, but I have Vampire Weekend lying around somewhere and I think I'm about to buy Third by Portishead, Dear Science by TV on the Radio, and Fleet Foxes so *shrug*

EDIT: The only Sigur Ros album I have is (), and it's uh... I don't know how to say, it's kind of boring most of the time because the songs are so drawn-out and the lyrics are the same throughout the album, but if you're in the right mood it can be great. Should I bother getting Takk... or Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust or a different album?

EDIT 2: I forgot I own The Slip by Nine Inch Nails and I dunno if you would consider In Rainbows to be released this year but if you do I own that too.

EDIT 3: OH and Here We Stand by the Fratellis and Systematic Chaos by Dream Theater.


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## Ether's Bane (Dec 30, 2008)

Death Magnetic and Ultra Beatdown (yes, the one by DragonForce) were awesome.


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## Morbid (Dec 30, 2008)

There have been some very good albums released by some bands I like this year. Cradle of Filth have released their first decent album in about eight years, amazing comeback. Both Satyricon and Deicide have released very solid albums, as have Hail Of Bullets. The definite highlight of this year for me though has been Get Dead Or Die Trying by The Rotted (formerly Gorerotted). I've listened to this almost every day since I bought it on release, fucking amazing, gets better with every listen. A future extreme metal classic.

There's also been some disappointing ones however. Metallica's new one wasn't awful but was pretty average, certainly not deserving of the praise heaped upon it, recent albums by newer thrash bands such as Evile or Municipal Waste shit all over it completely. I only managed to get through it once tbh, actually genuinely boring in some places. Metallica should stick to playing the classic songs live.

The thing that really fucked up this year was Cryptopsy's new one. I mean jesus christ what were they thinking. Anyone who's heard the album will know what I mean. Fucking atrocious.


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## Retsu (Dec 30, 2008)

I need to listen to CoF's latest still.


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## Lady Grimdour (Dec 30, 2008)

Katy Perry's album wasn't half bad. I admit the single was catchy.

But Ultra Beatdown was more of the same from Dragonforce. Bland and fast as always.


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## Tarvos (Dec 30, 2008)

Zeta Reticuli said:


> I think the only album I own released this year is Viva La Vida. Kind of pathetic, but I have Vampire Weekend lying around somewhere and I think I'm about to buy Third by Portishead, Dear Science by TV on the Radio, and Fleet Foxes so *shrug*


Third is good but if you haven't heard Dummy get that first, I didn't really like TV on the Radio much



> EDIT: The only Sigur Ros album I have is (), and it's uh... I don't know how to say, it's kind of boring most of the time because the songs are so drawn-out and the lyrics are the same throughout the album, but if you're in the right mood it can be great. Should I bother getting Takk... or Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust or a different album?


Get Takk and Agaetis Byrjun, new one is a waste of time

Also DragonForce sucks people



> EDIT 2: I forgot I own The Slip by Nine Inch Nails and I dunno if you would consider In Rainbows to be released this year but if you do I own that too.


slip is mediocre, in rainbows counts as 2007



> EDIT 3: OH and Here We Stand by the Fratellis and Systematic Chaos by Dream Theater.


sc is from 2007, june even


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## Retsu (Dec 30, 2008)

I liked Third a lot more than Dummy. Does this make me a heathen?


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## Tarvos (Dec 30, 2008)

No, but Dummy is more representative of their sound overall when they started out. I have yet to hear the s/t though.

I'm a big Dummy fan so that may factor into the whole thing as well.


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## #1 bro (Dec 30, 2008)

Watershed said:


> Third is good but if you haven't heard Dummy get that first, I didn't really like TV on the Radio much


Too late, and so far I like them both. :P



> slip is mediocre


Agreed, I don't like all those ambient tracks. But then again I've never been much of a NIN fan.


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## Tarvos (Dec 30, 2008)

Third is a good record. I don't get why you guys are getting so defensive. I like Dummy more but Third is a more than worthy comeback for a band that I thought would never come back.

Nine Inch Nails are alright but their older work is waaaaaay better. I have heard the Slip and Year Zero, and some of it is nice but it's more background music than anything. The Downward Spiral is by far their best album, musically and lyrically.


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## #1 bro (Dec 30, 2008)

I own the Downward Spiral but I really haven't listened to it much tbh. Maybe I'll get around to it sometime.

EDIT: okay so Third rocks but is it just me or do they use the whole "the song ends when you aren't expecting it!" schtick way too often?


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## foreign contaminant (Dec 31, 2008)

though it wasn't my resolution for 2008, i pretty much spent the whole of it consuming numerous new musicians and bands i discovered through word of mouth. despite that, a lot of music i heard in 2008 was old. i can actually count on my fingers what albums i heard that came out this year..

cat power - jukebox. it was a thoroughly boring collection of covers in a soul style. not unique enough to be a good listen, but just boring enough to be worthy of a spot on a shelf at starbucks.

playradioplay - texas. a bunch of really catchy electronic pop songs are in here, but they're kind of samey. the whole is actually _worse_ than the sum of its parts.

portishead - third. portishead was one of the bands i discovered this year. i bought dummy, listened to it once and wasn't sure of what i heard. i heard it once more, loved it, and bought their second album a week later. not long after that, i bought this and was bewildered. everyone says this is a grower, but it hasn't grown much on me. to be fair, i never listened to it fully more than once, and most people went into third with no expectations, unlike me. after hearing all the praise this record's gotten from people like pitchfork, popmatters and stereogum, i'm convinced i should probably give it a few more chances, which i was already willing to do.

santogold - santogold. this one is filled with good pop songs end to end. santogold doesn't seem to be able to stick to one type of music, but she has a good enough grasp on new wave, ska, hip-hop and punk-ish styles to be likeable in any guise.

cut copy - in ghost colours. i really really really like this record! i downloaded it having only heard "lights and music," which i felt had a good beat and neat synth effects that echoed silly disco music. once i listened to it, though, i was floored; lights and music is probably one of the worst songs on it and i really like that one! there are a lot of ambient tracks on it and those are fairly useless (they do segue into the other songs, but then again, a nice chunk of a lot of the songs is spent preparing to segue into the next part, so why bother), but otherwise there are nine good songs on here. not necessarily recommended, but it's a really fun album from a good new band.

justice - a cross the universe. i haven't actually sat down and listened to this yet. i've heard three songs off of it; it sounds like it's going to be another alive 2007, which is a good thing for me.

beck - modern guilt. it seemed like a competent follow-up from beck. i really liked the information, and this seems to have its good songs also. (i haven't actually heard this one since july and i can't really speak for it.)

the mae shi - HLLLYH. i can't speak for this either; i just got it and still have... maybe seven-and-a-half other albums to listen to before i get to this one.

that said, the only album i haven't heard from this year that i want to hear from this year is the new of montreal cd and maybe the david byrne/brian eno collaboration.


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## Tarvos (Dec 31, 2008)

Zeta Reticuli said:


> I own the Downward Spiral but I really haven't listened to it much tbh. Maybe I'll get around to it sometime.
> 
> EDIT: okay so Third rocks but is it just me or do they use the whole "the song ends when you aren't expecting it!" schtick way too often?


they usually do so I guess... it's called being experimental I guess


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## #1 bro (Dec 31, 2008)

Watershed said:


> they usually do so I guess... it's called being experimental I guess


It's experimental if you do it once in your career (like the Beatles), it's just kind of annoying/pretentious if every other song ends that way :|


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## Bombsii (Dec 31, 2008)

Woah, am I the only person who put no? Woah.


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